VP Duterte faces fresh impeachment complaints

Two impeachment complaints were filed against Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio on Monday, reviving efforts to remove her from office over corruption allegations after a bid last year stalled when the Supreme Court halted proceedings. 

The first complaint, filed by activists affiliated with opposition groups, accused Ms. Duterte of misusing hundreds of millions of pesos in confidential funds, ordering subordinates to falsify reports to conceal the alleged misuse and repeatedly skipping congressional hearings on her office’s budget. 

Ms. Duterte is prepared to answer the allegations, her defense spokesman Michael T. Poa said in a statement. She is confident that an impartial review would find the accusations “devoid of both factual and legal basis.” 

“The people already know what happened in the past, and we will not give the second-highest official of the land any excuse to be corrupt,” former congresswoman Arlene D. Brosas told a news briefing in Filipino after the complaint was filed at the House of Representatives. 

The accusations echo similar claims raised two years ago, when calls for Ms. Duterte’s impeachment intensified after a congressional inquiry that found she might have misused more than 612.5 million in confidential and intelligence funds. 

“The Constitution does not permit such cynical disregard for public trust,” according to a copy of the complaint, alleging betrayal of public trust — one of the five constitutional grounds for impeachment, along with bribery, treason, graft and corruption and culpable violation of the Constitution. 

It added that the Vice President had treated public funds as a “personal war chest” while evading legislative oversight. 

The complaint was endorsed by party-list lawmakers Antonio L. Tinio, Sarah Jane Elago and Renee Louise M. Co. 

A second impeachment complaint was later filed by civil society and religious leaders, accusing Ms. Duterte of corruption, unexplained wealth and betrayal of public trust. 

“The impeachment complaint is not that different from the previous one,” complainant Francis Joseph “Kiko” Aquino Dee said, noting that the Supreme Court had not cleared the Vice President of the earlier allegations. 

Ms. Duterte was impeached by the House last year after more than a third of lawmakers backed a fourth complaint, which was transmitted directly to the Senate. 

She later won a Supreme Court ruling that voided the proceedings, with the high court saying lawmakers violated constitutional rules by bypassing earlier complaints. 

The court barred impeachment moves against the Vice President until Feb. 6, though its ruling allowed new complaints to be filed starting Jan. 15. 

Renewed impeachment efforts risk reopening a bitter political feud between the Duterte and Marcos camps, whose alliance in the 2022 elections has since unraveled. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio